Unless you are some kind of language genius “What can I say, I have a good ear for languages” annoying kind of person, learning anything from Russian to Tahitian in 8 weeks, you’ll need to take Norwegian language classes.

1) Register in a language course, a.k.a norskkurs
There are many schools and institutions in Norway giving such classes. Some are public such as Rosenhoff (this is under the Oslo kommune), some are private such as Alfa Skolen, and others are something in between such as Folkeuniversitetet (subsidised by the State and available all over the country).

If you go for the public classes then be prepared for some testing. Yes, even though you tell them you don’t know a single word of Norwegian they will still test you on your level, as ironic as it sounds. The first test I had was a lady who asked me to copy a…

Background

Backpropagation is a common method for training a neural network. There is no shortage of papers online that attempt to explain how backpropagation works, but few that include an example with actual numbers. This post is my attempt to explain how it works with a concrete example that folks can compare their own calculations to in order to ensure they understand backpropagation correctly.

If this kind of thing interests you, you should sign up for my newsletter where I post about AI-related projects that I’m working on.

Backpropagation in Python

You can play around with a Python script that I wrote that implements the backpropagation algorithm in this Github repo.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to have your own personal or business SmugMug mobile “app” that you could share with clients, family, friends, or visitors? Well, now you can! Creating a custom app for their mobile phone or tablet is the easiest way for your visitors to find and see your work. You can share your entire SmugMug site, just a page, a folder, or a gallery. The options are endless. Professionals — this means clients can have their own app to showcase and share their wedding and any special event right on their mobile desktop!

Let’s go over five reasons why this cool new feature is one you’ll want to take advantage of.

1) Brand yourself

Who says only big companies can have their own app? Now you can wow your customers, family and friends by having your name, logo, and photos on your own unique app. Your brand should…

United States of America concept with the statue of liberty in front of the New York cityscape at night. Foto: Alexey Rotanov.

Most Norwegian are shocked looking at what is going on in American politics these days. Even the thought that Donald John Trump can end up at the White House is something we have huge problems understanding. Can Michale Moore’s new documentary give us some answers?

At the same time, we see that The Kauffman Foundation suggests policies that protect against entrepreneurial risks and economic hazards (and as they say it) might encourage more people to start companies. Is it even possible to raise such a debate in the complicated political landscape we see in the USA today? In Norway, we know it is critical to have robust safety nets to motivate people to take risks. The region has implemented “the concept of WE” with great success, wich I think…

I had just explained to Amber that 122 GB of music files were missing from my laptop. I’d already visited the online forum, I said, and they were no help. Although several people had described problems similar to mine, they were all dismissed by condescending “gurus” who simply said that we had mislocated our files (I had the free drive space to prove that wasn’t the case) or that we must have accidentally deleted the files ourselves (we hadn’t). Amber explained that I should blow off these dismissive “solutions” offered online because Apple employees don’t officially use the forums—evidently, that honor is reserved for lost, frustrated people like me, and (at…